Mount Salak – 2211MDPL, Day 2: The Top of The Mountain and Going Home

Finally…I am going to wrap up my hiking to Mount Salak, which happened more than a month ago. I have been so busy and I also want to write something else apart from my travel…hence this very late wrap up.

The hike was on October 25 – 26, 2014. So far I have published these three posts:

I wrote in my previous posts that the trek of Mount Salak was not challenging along, it was like walking in the park…HOWEVER, I soon realized that I had to swallow my words or thoughts.

We left the camping ground near mid-night. It was pitch black with only the stars as our source of natural light. We all carried small flash-light. Because it was dark and we didn’t want anyone got lost we tried hard to keep everyone close. Every time the leading group was too far ahead, the one in the back would shout to stop or slow down. It was a very long journey, the trek was so steep and we had to grabs things in the dark. The flash light didn’t really show how steep it was. I forgot how many of us went up, around twenty something but couldn’t remember the exact number…not all of us managed to reach the top. One man went back few hours after we departed. Three more had to stay in one place and waited for us to get down again.

The hike took forever because we had to wait for the others. I was in the leading group because walking too slow exhausted me more than walking fast on my own my pace. The plan was to catch the sunrise but we couldn’t make it😦Once the sun shone, the trek became a lot easier to see and that was the time when everyone started to part away. The one who can walk fast moved ahead while the slow one walked on the back. No one was afraid to get lost anymore because the sun had shown her face. Along the trek, there were marking showing how many metres to the top and each mark shows 100metres, and trust me 100metres there is way longer than 100metres when you are walking in the mall!

The trek to the top of Mount Salak was as insane as the trek to the top of Mount Cikurai. But, I could handle climbing roots, rocks and slippery soil…there was one spot that I couldn’t do, the place called “Tali Jiwo” you can translate the words soul rope or life rope to be more precise, it was a small piece on land where both sides were ravines. I have high phobia (or maybe fall phobia), it scared the hell out me. I kept saying I can’t…I can’t go through that. The group leader kept on assuring me that I can. I walked half through and couldn’t move my feet father, I stopped there in the middle. It was insane, I completely stopped. He (our group leader) had to reach his hand and catch my hand. It was the scariest moment in my hiking life.

This is Tali Jiwo, these were taken when we went back to the camping area. I managed to pass through it by looking at the lower ravine.

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I am glad I could pass that though I am still afraid of height😦

After passing through the ups and downs trek, we finally reached the top near 7 am. It took us 7 hours to get to the top. It could actually be faster but we had to stick together in the dark. We took our time there. There were people camping there, one of them gave us hot chocolate milk (thank you so much🙂 )

Our shoes didn’t look like shoes anymore

My hand and nails were very dirty.

Some of the men in our group took their time to sleep for a while.

I and my friends (all girls) took our time taking pictures.

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Here’s a panoramic view from the top of Salak 1 (Mount Salak has several peak, this is number 1)

We didn’t stay there for long because there wasn’t much to see. The men wanted to stay longer to sleep and just relax. We (me and my friends) decided to go first, this small group of three ladies went ahead without a single man from our group. The leader said he will catch up and said if I was too scared to pass through Tali Jiwo, I should wait for him there. Fortunately, I finally managed to pass it on my own🙂

Because it’s only the three of us, we took our time to take several pictures so that I can show it here in my blog.

The trek was narrow

Slippery

and sometimes looked like this

There were some places where it was too steep to walk, we had to use rope to go down

Here’s a video of my friend descending using a rope.

If there were still enough roots, we could climb it without using rope

Click on the image to enlarge it

I fell down sooooo many time because it was more slippery than when we went up. We left the camp after the rain had stopped, it was slippery but not so many mud yet. When we descended, the trek had already been stepped by so many people hence made it more muddy and more slippery.

The group leader and two other men from our group finally catch up on us. They were really fast. They told us that they had been running all the way. Now, we became a group of six. It was fun because we got to know each other closer. We were laughing all the way down.

Although the trek was as crazy as Mount Cikurai but Mount Salak still had some horizontal land so it wasn’t as tiring as when I got down from Mount Cikurai.

The time needed to go down was less than four hours. On our way down, we could see Kawah ratu from afar.

When we reached the camping area, the people who stayed had cooked for us and some of the tents were already been packed.

This is how I looked, full of mud on my hands and pants.

We passed by some of our group members when we went down. Our report worried the group leaders because they knew that it would take much longer from them to go down. The rain fell down and assured us that the slow ones will descend much longer.

Because Kawah Ratu couldn’t be passed once it was dark, the sulfur increased at night time and also the trek was impossible at night, so the leaders divided us. Half of us had to go back to Pasir Reungit before dark while the other had to wait for the ones who were still on the top.

Our journey back was greeted by constant rain. Fortunately the rain wasn’t heavy. But we hardly saw any dry path. All watery. I didn’t take any pictures due to rain.

The first group to descend back to Pasir Reungit was fast. We only had two breaks. We left near 4 pm and reached Pasir Reungit near 7 pm. We looked like drenched rats. Some took a shower some only changed their clothes.

We waited for the second batch of our group till around 10 pm but it turned out there were a miscommunication. The leaders of the second batch didn’t inform us that they won’t descend tonight…so our waiting was in vain. We could have go home at 8pm if they had informed us, instead we went home past 11 pm and reached home pass 1 am (and I have to go to work at 7 am #sigh )

The second batch stayed another night and didn’t come to Pasir Reungit, they used another easier trek. They reached Jakarta passed noon.

Too bad we went up together but we didn’t go home together. I think the lesson to learn here is to know your own strength, if you know you can’t reach the top than don’t go, just stay in the camp.

Overall…I enjoyed every minute of my trip to Mount Salak. I had great time there, both with challenging trek and the people. Looking forward to hike with them again.

My next trip is to go to Mount Rinjani, one of the tallest mountains in Indonesia, this end of December🙂

You’re always having to get up or stay up in the night to go hiking. I think of hiking as a day time event, or something you do at night because you wanted to do something special like soak in the hot springs under the stars, or because something went wrong – like the tent broke.

Oooooh!! Those high spots do look daunting. Luckily I’m not afraid of heights like you, but I think I would still be intimidated by some of them if I were there. But it’s something to be proud of for you to beat your fears and make the climb to the top.🙂

It looks exciting! Well done on completing the hike and making it through that narrow path. I’m not afraid of heights but I think I would have been very cautious and a bit scared too – but we are just respectful of nature I suppose and know of its beauty but also its dangers🙂 Have fun on your next hike😀

My Baby Turtles

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